Walking Her Home
by zlinka
Summary: Chouji is dumped and Hinata is there to help the boy who would do anything to help a friend. Rating may change...
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Naruto.

Hinata sat in a booth at the Korean BBQ joint. She was sitting with her team mates Kiba and Shino and their teacher Kurenai as they talked about what they would work on after lunch. As Kurenai was telling Kiba that he needed to work on teamwork with Shino, team 10 and their sensei walked in. Kurenai acknowledged them with nod of their head and continued lecturing her pupils.

After a while, Hinata seemed to notice an imbalance among Team 10. Everything seemed to be normal, Ino was talking animatedly, Shikamaru was roling his eyes, Chouji was eating feverishly, and Asuma sensei just sat back smoking away. Everything looked normal to Hinata, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off with the team.

"Uh oh," Kiba said suddenly.

"Nani?" Hinata asked tearing her eyes away from the other team.

"Ino just called Chouji the F-word," he whispered leaning over the center of the table.

"Honto?" Hinata whispered back, looking back at the other team, "Demo... he's not angry. Are you sure?"

It's true, Team 10 just sat around the table, Ino talking animatedly, Shikamaru rolling his eyes, Chouji inhaling his food, and Asuma sucking on his death stick. Then Hinata noticed something, Chouji wasn't inhaling his food, he wasn't even putting anything in his mouth. Instead he was just playing with his chopsticks. Hinata had never seen him do that. There was still food on the grill, and he wasn't going for it. Hinata continued watching Chouji as their meal progressed, and noticed that he didn't even go for the last piece of food, instead Ino took it.

_Poor Chouji,_ Hinata thought, then forgot about what she saw when her team went to continue their training.

Hinata was hot and sweaty. She had long ago taken off her beige coat and was currently sweating through her purple tank top. She quickly motioned to Kiba that she needed a water break. As she walked over to her canteen, she saw her crush Naruto. She squeaked a little in surprise when he came running over to him. Frantically she looked for her coat, she didn't want him seeing her all sweaty.

"Oi, Kiba!" he shouted running right passed the frantic Hinata. "Have you heard?"

"Heard what?" was the enthusiastic reply. Kiba loved gossip.

"Ino and Chouji broke up!"

"They were dating?"

"For a while now. Where have you been?" Naruto scoffed.

This is when Hinata decided to try and eneter the conversation, "W-we've been away on missions," she said quietly.

Apparently too quietly for Naruto, because he just kept talking to Kiba, "They started dating around the same time that Sakura and me started!" he said proudly. Hinata could feel her stomach lurch. _Naruto...and Sakura..._After hearing this, she quietly got her gear and left the training space, without telling anyone that she was leaving.

For a while, Hinata wondered around aimlessly. Finally wanting to be alone, but not wanting to go home she settled for the Hero Stone. She sat with her back against it, wallowing in her misery. Finally after a crying jag Hinata realized something. She hurt, but it was mainly her pride. Her heart hurt a little, because she had really thought that she loved him, but her pride hurt more. Mostly because of all the times that she chickened out when it came to telling Naruto her feelings.

Hinata got a little angry then. Again, not at Naruto, but at herself. Right then and there she decided that the next time she liked someone like that, she was going to tell them, that way she wouldn't have any "what ifs" in her life. She stood up, full of purpose and hope. It was as she was gathering her gear that she heard a twig snapping. Hinata snapped her head up, looking for the source of the noise. When she saw nothing, she almost realxed. That is, until she remembered that Konoha was under attack from Orochimaru.

"Byakugan," she whispered, feeling the viens around her eyes expand.

At the edge of the field she saw Chouji leaning against a tree. Curious, Hinata de-activated her byakugan and went over to investigate. When she was came upon him, Chouji was staring up at the sky, watching the sunset. _He looks sad,_ Hinata thought.

"Konichiwa Chouji-kun," Hinata said softly.

Chouji didn't react at first. Finally he dragged his eyes away from the sky and to Hinata, "Hey Hinata-san." Then went back to staring at the sky.

Making a quick decision Hinata asked, "May I join you?" He didn't reply, so Hinata sat down next to him. _He didn't say no._

For a while the two sat in silence. Hinata wanted to help him, she just didn't know how.

"Do you want to know what I heard today?" Hinata offered tentatively. He just looked at her. "I heard that Naruto and Sakura are going out."

After some more silence Chouji finally responded with, "I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about it?" Hinata smiled a bit at this, Chouji always tried to make everything better, often ignoring his own pain to do so.

"N-not really. D-do you?" Hinata cursed her stutter, sometimes it was very inconvenient.

"Talk about Naruto and Sakura dating?" he feined ignorance.

"O-or whatever is bothering you," she offered. He remained silent.

They stayed like that until the end of sunset, niether saying a word. Finally, when it was dark Chouji stood up and offered Hinata his hand. She accepted and he began walking Hinata home.

They walked hand in hand through the town, niether saying a word. When they reached the Hyuuga compound, Chouji let go of her hand and they stood facing each other awkwardly. Finally he smiled, for the first time sense she had seen hin at the BBQ.

"Thankyou Hinata-chan," he said and walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

Hinata liked ramen, but she was tired of it. Everyday, for the last week or so, after training with her teammate, they took her to eat ramen. They assumed that she would want to go, because of the crush she had on Naruto. Key word in that sentence being _had_.

Kiba probably forgot that she was with him when Naruto announced that ha and Sakura were going out. That or he thought that Hinata would want the chance to "fight for her man." It was sweet that they were willing to do this for her, but she wanted it to stop. She just didn't know how to tell them.

_Maybe I should be direct? _ she thought to herself, then immediately discarded that idea. Hinata didn't like confrontations. Besides her friends were just trying to help her out. It wasn't their fault that she had moved on with her life.

_Maybe I should just tell them I don't want ramen?_ This way they don't know that I know about what they're doing. Besides this was most likely Kiba's idea. Shino didn't really like ramen, he just put up with it. This fact is what clued her in to the fact that her teammates were up to something.

_I could always get a new crush._ This thought made her blush a little. She had had such a crush on Naruto that she didn't know where to begin looking for a new crush. That and she thought it would be "too troublesome" to quote Shikamaru.

Hinata was so focused on her dilemma that she hadn't realized that they had reached their destination. She would have continued walking if Kiba hadn't grabbed the back of her coat to stop her.

"Where are you going?" he asked, "We're here."

Hinata blushed at this. "Nn," was the only thing she said to this. She was about to voice her oppinion about ramen when she saw Team 10. I was like the Korean BBQ joint all over again. Everything looked normal, but it didn't feel normal. Ino sat between her two teammates, talking a mile a minute. Shikamaru sat to her left sighing into his soup and Chouji slowly slurped noodles into his mouth. Hinata was trying to figure out what was wrong, but her thoughts were again interupted by Kiba.

"Hey guys!" he called out to the other team. "Mind if we join you?" Before they could say yes or no, he took an open stool next to Shikamaru. Shino just shrugged and sat next to Kiba. The only place open at the counter now was next to Chouji, so she went to the empty stool and smiled softly at the chubby ninja.

"Hello Chouji-kun," she greeted quietly.

Chouji made sure to swallowed before he replied, "Hello Hinata-chan. How has your day been going?"

"It's been going well. What about you?"

"Can't complain," he said cryptically. Before Hinata could question him, the girl behind the counter asked for Hinata's order. As she turned her head to give it to the girl, she noticed that Ino was looking at her. Hinata smiled shyly at the blond before ordering her meal. Ino just turned her head and started talking with Kiba, not acknowledging Hinata's smile.

Hinata just shrugged, thinking that Ino just didn't see it. But as the evening progressed Hinata noticed more and more discrepancies in Ino's behavior. She seemed intent on ignoring Hinata and often interupted conversations Hinata started with any of the other ninjas. Hinata wasn't the only one who noticed this though. Chouji had an annoyed look on his face because of the antics of his teammate.

Eventually the awkward dinner ended and they all started to leave the ramen shop. Hinata lived on the other side of town from everybody else. She was used to either walking home alone or with one or both of her teammates. Tonight would have been alone, Shino had a mission early the next morning and Kiba needed to rush home to clean up before his mother returned from a mission, but Chouji volunteered to walk her home. Because of Hinata's bloodline she had a 360 degree view of everything around her, so she noticed that there was a vein pulsing on her forehead.

They walked in silence for a while. Finally Hinata broke the silence.

"Is Ino mad at me?" she asked quietly.

Chouji didn't look at her at first. So, they continued to walk in silence. Finally a few blocks away from the Hyuuga compound.

"She told me that she made a mistake, and wanted to get back together," he said quietly.

Hinata looked up at him. "What did you say?"

"I told her that I would have to think about it."

She was almost afraid to bring up the next question, "D-do you want to get back together with her?" Chouji just shrugged. Hinata would have pressed further, but they reached the Hyuuga compound.

So instead of asking about Ino again, Hinata turned towards Chouji and smiled at him. "Thank you for walking me home Chouji-kun."

Chouji had a wierd look on his face. He looked like she was a puzzle and he was trying to solve it. Finally he leaned down quickly, and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. Hinata's eyes widened at Chouji's sudden action. He smiled down at her.

"Goodnight Hinata-chan."


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. Cries

More and more often Team 8 would meet up with Team 10. During these occassions Ino did her best to ignore and exclude Hinata. Ino was subtle about it, she never acted overly hostile towards Hinata, but antime Hinata would start a conversation, Ino would take control of it. Shino, ignored Ino's attempts to exclude hsi teammate while Kiba didn't notice at all that this was happening to his shy teammate, mostly because Hinata herself didn't seem to notice.

Kiba was wrong in the regard. Hinata noticed, and she thought she knew the reason. _Ino probably thinks I'm stealing Chouji-kun!_

This thought amazed her. Over the years, sense the chuunin exams, Hinata's self esteem had grown a lot. She now knew that yes, she was pretty, but Ino was beyond pretty. Ino was vibrant and strong. _How could Ino consider me competition?_ The only thing that Hinata could think of is the friendship she and Chouji had begun. Whenever the two teams met after training, Chouji always volunteered to walk Hinata home and several times on their days off, Hinata would sometimes join Chouji and Shikamaru in their cloud gazing expidition.

_But we're just firends. I don't really like Chouji that way, _every time she thought this, she remembered the kiss he had given her. He didn't do anything like sense, but sometimes she could still feel the imprint of his lips on her cheek. Everytime she recalled the kiss, her cheeks warmed up and she felt all tingly in a good way.

The two teams had finished their okinomiyaki and were getting ready to go their seperate ways, when Ino did something that she hadn't done before. As the six ninja's made their way to the exit, Ino grabbed Chouji's arm and hugged it to her chest.

"Chouji-kun, walk me home," she said in a sweet voice. Hinata felt her eye twitch involuntarily at that tone of voice. Chouji had turned an interesting shade of red at this. He seemed to be considering his options very carefully. Finally he gently exstracted his arm from Ino's death grip.

"I'm sorry Ino-san, but I'm walking Hinata-chan home," he said firmly. Hinata's heart lifted at this declaration. _So maybe I'm a liar,_ she thought to herself. If Hinata had an Inner Hinata, like Inner Sakura, she would be pumping her fist in the air and shouting for joy that Chouji picked her over Ino. As it is, there is no Inner Hinata, so the only reponse of joy Hinata gave was a shy smile at Chouji and delicately flushed cheeks.

The two ninjas walked in silence. Niether seemed to want to talk about what happened earlier. Slowly Hinata edged closer to Chouji, watching him from the corner of her eye. Half-way to the Hyuuga compound, Hinata "accidently" bumped her hand into Chouji's. When he glanced over at her she was blushing, but smiling shyly at him. Then, she boldly but gently wrapped her fingers around the hand she had just bumped.

Chouji's cheeks were a brighter red then Hinata's, but he too was smiling shyly. The rest of the way to the Hyuuga compound they walked hand in had with matching red cheeks. When they arrived, they stood outside the gates of the compound, facing each other awkwardly.

"Ano... Chouji-kun," Hinata began, breaking the silence," Do you remember that day at the Hero Stone?" Chouji nodded, looking directly into her eyes.

"Well, that day I promised myself something. I promised that if I ever felt like I liked anyone that I would tell them," she blushed at these last words, hoping that Chouji would get the hint. When it looked like he was just staring blankly, she took a fortifying breath.

She stood up on tippy toe and leaned forward. She then pressed her lips to his cheek. When she pulled away, she was surprisingly not blushing. "I like you Chouji-kun."


End file.
